It is often useful to monitor the environmental characteristics of certain settings. Data centers (e.g., a room containing a number of machines, such as, for example, servers, network devices and storage devices) are an example of a setting in which it is important to monitor environmental characteristics. For example, while under load, data center equipment can generate a significant amount of heat, and increasing the power density of a system can result in an increase in the number of heat concentration pockets. Combinations of air and liquid cooling solutions and monitoring techniques can be used to manage the environmental characteristics of a setting such as a data center.